Dory shares how a family tradition of making eggs into May Baskets became a year round ornaments business.

Springtime brings back memories from childhood of Easter Eggs and May Baskets. My favorite eggs were the heavy sugar ones with the small end open for viewing scenes of meadows with miniature rabbits and other small animals scattered about. I’m sure there were many other themes depicted, but I liked the animals best. That is probably why I began collecting tiny china figurine ornaments when I was old enough to be trusted to keep them safely out of harm’s way.

After Easter, we would use decorations, ornaments and the imitation grass from our Easter baskets to put inside May baskets. We made the baskets from strips of heavy colored craft paper woven like real baskets only much smaller. That way you could make as many as you needed.

My grandmother told how children would make baskets and secretly leave them on their friends’ doorsteps. It then became a guessing game to learn which friend had thought of you. We lived in the country with no neighborhood families nearby, so our best friends were each other. Still, it was lots of fun to look forward to each year, especially the guessing!

At Eggcentricity, I make May Basket ornaments by cutting an egg horizontally so I get two ornament baskets from one egg. The baskets can be plain or filled with whatever your imagination leans to. The trim around the top is both inside and outside for strength and the handle trip is glued in before the inside trim piece is added.

Eggcentricity has handcrafted eggshell ornaments for every season. Take a look at the Cloud 9 ornaments as well.

Submitted by Dorothea from Eggcentricity.com